You could say that this company has more exclusives than that company but in the end they both get their most effective support from multiplatform 3rd party games.

PS1 was a 3rd party primary platform and achieved great success. So much that sony felt the need to buy up studios they thought were worth the $$$. So when the ps2 came out they had their stable of exclusive developers.

That was then. This is now and the game has changed. Exclusives matter but they just do not have the weight they once did.

Exclusives matter, the Xbox 360 launch compared to the PS3 launch was based around exclusives (sometimes ignoring the PC as console gamers do)

The 360 was hailed as a console that had the games, PS3 was the console that "had no games"

Exclusives have always mattered and will always matter, though I agree that today, it's a part of other factors, including price, online service, etc.

That said, exclusives aren't necessarily better or superior to multiplatform games, which has been an elitist attitude developed this gen. I think it's also important to remember that Sony's best exclusives, GT being the exception, were made by third party. Titles like Final Fantasy, GTA, and Metal Gear are all developed by third party and a large part of that fanbase wont be loyal to a console brand, but to the software product.

I did say exclusives matter. I just summed it up with they dont have their weight like before.

And yes the 360 was the system with the games because that is what it was designed for. Playing games so that is an obvious statement. Just like it was with the PS3 having not many (i didnt say none) games.

Even sony admitted they werent sure how to promote the ps3 at launch. It was a bluray player that also played games is sort of how they put it.

You cant ignore that for the first several months up until practically the first year the ps3 had an identity crisis. They didnt have the games....they had the movies.

When people bought a ps3 at launch it was a guess between movies or games. To sony it was still a sale so it didnt matter.

When people bought a 360 at launch it was for.....the games.

Fast forward to today and neither of that matters as they are both selling extremely well. Exclusive/non exclusive....doesnt matter as much anymore.

Very flawed. If many 360 gamers will contest that Halo and Gears and Kinect , exclusives in every sense of the word, contributed to 360 success!

It should be "Did the Xbox 360s performance against the Wii & PS3 prove that exclusives matter?" because it really did not dominate the industry as MS hoped it to be because of the lack of exclusives. Nintendo dominated. PlayStation dominated when they first stepped into the market. All because of exclusives even until now.

Exclusives ALWAYS matter. The 360 is continuing to sell well because MS is advertising Kinect very well, which is exclusive to 360. That of course leaves hardcore gamers thinking wtf?, but casuals will be snapping that sh*t up.

Exclusives are not as important as people think, just look how unreliable the 360 was for the first few years with its RRoD problem (RRoD fixed on newer models) add to that the fact of PS3 having better exclusives but the 360 has still done really, really well. Exclusives are a nice bonus, but that's all.

@ ApplEaglElephant A game being AAA is a matter of opinion I suppose, but the ratio of multi vs exclusive AAA games is nowhere near 2 to 1, 3 or 4 maybe.

yeah sure, that's the funny opinion of xfans who claim that since (more than 3,4 year now) ps3 is killing xbox with way more, and better exclusives (and the best are clearly superior than multiplatform games, wich is pure logic).

"360 sells best in the US because it has better online (XBLive) and most of the Multiplts run better on it."

lol, poor bigdaddy misinformed u.s fanboy, if your ridiculous statements was real, not only u.s would buy more 360 than ps3, but the world ! it's only biased medias (saying better online, better multiplatform..for example, than ps3 is doomed, etc) and marketing (biased medias are a part of marketing) who are the reasons why xbox sell better than ps3 in us territory (only !), with free online (and sometime better with dedicated server, etc), better exclusives, graphics, bluray, etc only brainwashed people want more xbox than ps3 (you can have both if you don't want to miss some games, but there is no point choosing xbox over ps3 if you are a gamer)

EDIT : "frankfur" : new multiaccount dumb xboytrolliar spotted 18 comment, november sign in : "PS3's exclusives sell a lot less than Halo and Gears because they just aren't good enough. Sony fans brag about exclusives, but they don't buy them. Killzone, Infamous, Resistance all sell less than XBLA titles" [email protected] donkey living in opposite world.

No...America didn't forget about Sony, Sony forgot how to sell in America. How much was the PS1 or PS2 when they came out? Sony lost America when they made the decision to slap a $600 price tag on their console and carried the arrogant stance "people will buy it anyway". But then again their only concern was winning the format war so they decided to sacrifice their gaming market share to do so.

Was just about to say that, I think they matter more in the start of a generation to get people to buy them...later on though it's just icing on the cake and my ps3 is all icing.

I do think it's funny though how the sides shifted, 3-4 years ago it was Xbox fanboys saying exclusives are what really matters and now they don't care and the opposite for ps3 fanboys.

@below

Yea I remember all the names they called the Ps3 sadly, but basically they were saying they didn't care they didn't have them (even though their were some excellent ones out)...and I'm not talking about ps3 owners I'm talking about the fanboys.

it doesn't seem to come into the calculations though. when PS3 was released a year later it released at a high price, much higher than the 360. at that time it was clear to me (and it frustrated me a lot) that Sony had to promote Blu-ray first in order to cement it's success.

since then the PS3 has been making up the ground steadily with the help of price reduction, new builds and incredible 1st party games.

but, when you look at the sales in all regions, it's clear that Americans like America and Japanese like Japan. nothing too incredible about that. however, if you look at Europe, where the PS3 released 16 months later and now has nearly a 4 million lead, it clearly shows that exclusives do matter because Europe has no invested interest... with the exception of the UK which for one reason or another seems to want so desperately to follow American trends

millions of people would have still bought gears if it was not exclusive lol in fact prob more people, halo and forza and uncharted and metal gears and ratchet and clanks and fables and etc could all very much exist as multiplats lol and if anything the franchises would be much more successful....

the only thing exclusives really do is sell a system to those only willing to buy 1 console......

they also let a dev maximize the systems resources and potentially create better games but i havent seen anything on the ps3 that the 360 cant do, perhaps to some degree games like heavy rain, ratchet, and god of war might not look as good but they could easily be done on 360

GribbleGrunger wrote:"it's proved that Americans buy their own products. Japan is much the same."

Now that makes ZERO sense. The #1 selling console in America is Wii. Last time I checked, that console was made by Nintendo which at the time was a Japanese company. PS2's largest market was America and I don't think that was an American console either.

America is the biggest importer of foreign products in the world. They are more PS3 sold in the US than in Japan.

360 sells best in the US because it has better online (XBLive) and most of the Multiplts run better on it. Have a look at the online shooter market and the percentage of those sales that go to the Americas and to the 360. That is a much better indicator that your rush to claim territorial bias.

@Persistantthug: You really believe Gears sold well because it was exclusive to 360? That make no sense either.

GribbleGrunger, why are you slamming UK gamers saying "desperately to follow American trends" and praist the rest of Europe for buying Japanese over American. Do you see that as being fair. You seem to have a personal gripe against anything American. You also choose to ignore, that PS brand was established in all these areas and that M$ is tasked with having to switch them over. Loyal gamers are not easy convert.

I do believe exclusives are important for distiguising consoles, but in the grand scheme of things, performance, features, friends and price are way more important.

One could say exclusives at one point was important, but now a days other exclusive features mattered more.

Multi-platform games are released by the hundreds annually (well at least a lot), while exclusives are two handfuls at best. Of course, exclusives aren't going to matter that much. As it is, they get far more attention for being a few games already....

Hate all you want but Gribble is RIGHT ON THE MONEY. The question is only... How do you feel about that? As long as there is unbiased reviewing of products and games I could careless... but that will never be the case. EU has no need to back either company. UK is pro America because they view the country or NA in general as their greatest colony. Take those last notes for what they are worth.

There is no widespread nationalism in UK... heck even the US has a weak nationalism now a days. It used to be that when you said "Made in USA" it was a selling point, now it amounts to overpriced.

Countries like Japan and China has strong nationalism, and that is why it matters there. There is almost no foreign brands that can compete with local brands if there is an alternative. If there are, they are an exception rather than the norm.

That said, I doubt UK people go in and buy Xbox 360 thinking it is because it is US designed. It is more likely because the UK has more similar taste to the US if anything.

Droid, you are right. However, the perception is that buying US company owned products will help the US economy one way or another. This has always been the case. This generation became service based because of subscriptions to make more revenue streams.....

I agree it does not prove anything, but Americans do not have the same brand/national loyalty as the Japanese. The Japanese show the utmost respect and loyalty to their home grown products. Even though they have become "westernized" they still love their own products. You do have exceptions like the iPod... The main reason they show this loyalty is that their economy is ranked in the top 5 because their electronics and auto industries. On the other hand, America has become a society that buys a large portion of foreign made products especially from Asia.

It proves that they dont matter to casual gamers. and this generation has been dominated by the "casual" gamer as video games are trying to break the mold of being "nerdy" and find their way into more homes. Solid exclusives are still very important to those who dont play games just for Multi-player.

I would say that they do matter...alot. what would Xbox be without halo or gears? There are many factors that explain the Xbox including the head start with their console, achievements, and online offerings. The price point helped alot too. Ps3 may have enjoyed more success this year from their exclusives had not so many AAA multiplatform titles released and we all know th. It has also become the console of the 14-18 year Oldsmobile, which is a big deal. I am sure that the devestation in Japan didn't help (look at me, I'm blaming the worlds problems on earthquakes just like r president). But, seriously, with cod and skyrim releasing this fall withbetterversions on Xbox...Also, ps3 may have had the slight advantage of being the more powerful console w a blue ray. But many hardcore gamers have made the switch to PC's.

Too bad people are stupid enough to actually pay to play online. MS capitalized on this big time and they even got them hooked on it. 50 dollars a year and how many years has it been already? My god that X360 sure is expensive to game on.

I'm only commenting because I just logged off WoW and you happened to mention it so...

There is a difference between monthy charges for access to a single game and paying annual charges for online access to ALL your games.

If I don't won't to pay for WoW anymore, I cancel and can't play that one game anymore. If I cancel Live, I'm screwed out of ALL online for EVERY game that has it. What's really awful about MS's subs for Live is the fact that you already pay a one time fee of $60 to access online content for that $60 game. You're also cut off services you already pay for or features that were meant to be free, like Netflix and Facebook.

Lastly, very few games offer perks like dedicated servers which limits cheaters and solves that nasty problem of lag and host advantage, so all you're really paying for permission to use your own bandwidth which you're already paying your ISP and matchmaking, which is normally provided by the game's developers.

The two real reasons to paying for Live and one is probably the reason why the majority of Xbox owners even own an Xbox in the first place, which is because their friends are doing it or they've convinced themselves that XBL is magic.

And then there's the people that have a Steam account and own a PS3, but still pay for Live. Those people make me scratch my head because they know they're being ripped for $60 and don't care.

Really Darth? So thy are freeloaders because they some people choose not to pay 50-60$ yearly for XGC and a few other communication features.....Because thats what MS has you paying for essentially, everything else should be free or is a payed sub through another company.

I actually prefer that Xbox Live stays paid, because annually I get new features that MS invested heavily into. It seems like almost every year we get a new dashboard with a host of features.

On top of my head, so far we received the following exclusive features that I use all the time now:

- ESPN, and first with Netflix - cross game chat - party chat - beacons

- for online play, MS also have a dedicated team to catching and dealing with cheaters, scammers and even investigate child related issues.

Also did you know each and every application even if it exist on other platforms, get special treatment from MS.

MS often times tweak the UI, and improves performance.

For instance, not only does Netflix have a party system for movie watching, but it employs their own re-buffering algorithm. MS did something similar for Hulu Plus as well. The UI is completely different and in my opinion much much better.

Anyhow read more about Netflix application here and why it is different than other platforms:

That said, I also like that there is a free alternative with PSN for those that want that. I frequently recommend the PS3 when people want to enjoy Netflix that doesn't game online or really play games, because it doesn't require an additional fee on top of Netflix.

The HALO effect is the sole reason the xbox brand is still alive today and still drives sales. Had MS not secured exclusive rights to the franchise and continue to use it IMO the brand would not be in the position it is today. How did he miss that?

Think of it like this. Next gen the three system will basically be on equal ground.With most developers going third party and Nintendo making an HD console, having third party games won't be enough. Why should I buy a next gen Microsoft console if it has the same games that are on the Wii U or the PS4?

In business you have to define yourself as opposed to the competition. Sony and Nintendo have several games that define them. Microsoft doesn't have that many and several of their games belong to third parties. What will they do if Gears 4 for example is on the Wii U or PS4? If you keep losing exclusives soon you will be at the mercy of third parties who can easily refuse or decide not to give you a game or keep it on your system or give you exclusive DLC.

Now Microsoft will have to work even harder to make their hardware appealing.If Gears 4 for example ends up on all the systems the fans might bend towards the PS4 because its online might be free or the the Wii U because they are Zelda fans too.In other words Sony might end up with the Gears fans AND the UC fans or Nintendo will get the Gears fans AND the Zelda fans. What does that leave Microsoft with? The one game that belongs to them that makes them the most money?

Remember it was Nintendo's exclusives that helped them weather the storm until the Wii came out. Without them Nintendo would have died out a long time ago. They lost the support of so many developers that without Mario and company they would be out of business or third party developers by now

I find it funny. Turn the calendar back several years to PS3's release. Look at what 360 fans are talking about. Now come back to todays date and look at what 360 fans say "doesn't matter." Its not just exclusive games, its every single thing the PS3 has ever gotten.

Didn't see that with PS3 fans and MGS, to this day PS3 fans still fight to keep that exclusive even though it went to 360.

My point is stop being fanboys. Do exclusives matter? Yes. They push things further. Facing facts a LOT of third parties are lackluster rip offs year in and year out. They are there for profit from major branded names. If first parties were not pushing boundries, where would we go? Why would MS WANT to make better games if Sony wasn't doing it too? Why would you buy one console over the other if they both offered the same thing? Exclusives help the entire industry, not just the console they appear on. At the same time Exclusives SAVE consoles, and the consoles return the favor by making exclusives popular. Half of the exclusives released on both platforms would of easily flown under the radar if they didn't have the "exclusive hype train" behind them.

Not having exclusives is like having a bunch of fanboys run the industry. Useless, stupid, and constantly favoring the company paying them.